Window shutters employing pivoting louvers for selection of the amount of light admitted thereby are well known in the art. Typical decorative window shutters have movable louvers ganged together for common movement by a rod or stick mounted down the center of the shutter assembly and secured by means of staples or other fasteners to the edge of each louver. This arrangement, which is standard in the louvered shutters available, interferes with the field of view through the shutters when the shutters are open, and presents problems for cleaning and painting of the shutter assembly. It also involves relatively labor intensive, and thus expensive, assembly procedures since the arrangement requires that individual staples or fasteners be mounted in the edge of each louver and fastening means be secured to the stick for engaging each louver staple.
In the typical shutters of the prior art, the means provided to releasably retain the louvers in a rotational position selected by the user is a heavy spring loading at either or both ends of each louver to maintain axial tension on the louver. The movement action of the shutter assembly is somewhat jerky because of this axial tension.
The usual manufacturing procedure for louvered shutter assemblies is to bring together each of the side, top and bottom pieces for the rectangular frame to be formed as well as each of the plurality of louvers, which are then combined in one step. While this assembly might though to be efficient, the manufacturing procedures which are required in addition to this step are relatively inefficient and expensive. The fastening means for each louver must be applied to the edge of each louver in a separate process, and corresponding fastening means be applied to the ganging rod for mating with the louver edge fasteners. Moreover, the whole assembly must be finished by painting or the like after the single step formation of frame with mounted louvers.
Typical examples of the arrangement of shutter assemblies wherein louvers are ganged together by a central stick or rod are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,718,485 and 2,761,185.